Wilbur f



(No Model.)

W. F. DIAL. LOOP TAKBR FOR SEWING MACHINES.

No. 480,180. I Pzztented Aug. 2, 1892.

mmirlgmgqm z:

NrrED STATES ATENT Fries.

l/VILBUR F. DIAL, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE WHEELER & IVILSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

LOOP-TAKER FOR SEWING-MACH I N ES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 480,180, dated August 2, 1892.

Application filed November 2, 1891. Serial No. i=10,595. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WVILBUR F. DIAL, of Bridgeport, county of Fairfield, State of Connecticut, have invented an Improvement in Sewing-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters and figures on the drawings representing like parts.

Parties using lock-stitch sewing-machines frequently find it desirable for some classes of work, especially childrens work, to use a chain or loop stitch, and many attempts have been made to provide a lock-stitch machine with devices whereby it might be used to make a chain or loop stitch; but all such attempts known to me have been attended with more or less expense and have required the addition of complicated parts not adapted to be easily applied or removed by ordinary users when not needed.

Appreciating the advantages of an interchangeable-stitch machine, I have selected as a basis of my invention the so-called Wheeler & IVilson hook, made as a single piece and capable of being run for stitching purposes at high Velocity, and by experiment I have devised a single-piece loop receiver and discharger, which when it is desired to make a chain or loop stitch maybe easily applied by a screw or in other suitable manner directly to and so as to form a part of the said hook.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the loop receiver and discharger which I have referred to as adapted to be applied to the usual Wheeler & IVilsou hook mightbe made as an integral part of the hook and yet not depart from my invention, as in such event it would only be necessary to remove the hook and hook-shaft of the old kind and substitute a hook of my improved pattern when it was desired to make a chain or loop stitch.

Figure 1 is a partial side elevation of aseW- ing-machine embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a partial front elevation and section of the machine shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows the loop receiver and detainer detached, and Figs. 3 to 7 are diagrams illustrating my improved device in different positions to show the manner of manipulating the needle-thread in the formation of a chain or loop stitch.

The bed-plate A, the overhanging arm A, the main shaft B in the said arm, the needlebar B, provided with an eye-pointed needle B and reciprocated by suitable link or other connection 13*, the hub C on the main shaft B, it having a suitable groove to actuate the take-up lever C, the slack-thread controller C the tension device C the presser-bar D, the presser-foot D, and the hook-shaft D having at its forward end a rotating hook D are and may be all substantially as common to the Vheeler 83 \Vilson machine, style No. 9, so the said parts need not be specifically further described further than to say that when the said hook has co-operating with it a bobbin and bobbin-case and a bobbinholder a lock-stitch will be made. I have referred to these devices forming part of a well known machine upon which I have chosen to illustrate my invention; but I dosire it to be understood that the needle-bar, the feed used, and the take-up may be of any other usual or suitable form and that instead of the particular or exact form of hook referred to I may as a foundation upon which to build my invention use any other equivalent hook adapted to co-operate with a diskbobbin and take a loop of needle-thread and cast the same about the disk-bobbin in the production of a lock-stitch2'. a, when the machine containing my improvements is to be adapted to make a lock-stitch and to be readily changed to make a chain or loop stitch.

In accordance with my invention I have devised a loop receiver and retainer, (shown as a finger a; represented separately in Fig. 2%) the said finger being so shaped and applied to the usual hook D at or near the heel thereof that the said loop or finger besides receiving and detaining the loop also expands and discharges the loop, the free end or point of the finger being inturned and terminating at a short distance from the regular point d of the hook and near the inner wall of the cavity occupied by the bobbin in the face of the hook; but it will be understood that the particular shape of the cavity in which the point of the finger enters is not material to this invention.

I desire particularly that it be understood that the finger or device a referred to, which is added to the hook D and which co-operates with the usual point d of the hook, (the point which first takes the loop of needlethread from the eye-pointed needle,) does not pass from end to end continuously through the loop-i. a, one end of the finger does not enter the loop and the finger then pass through the loop and the loop pass off the opposite end of the finger-as in other earlier plans in which it has been attempted to change a lock-siitch machine into a chain or loop stitch machine, but in accordance with my invention the loop taken by the point (Z of the regular hook, being discharged therefrom directly upon the point of the finger a and made to travel to the base 2 of the finger,as in Fig. 4, where it is attached to the heel of the hook, and in the further rotation of the hook, the finger a moving in unison With it, the loop cast upon the base 2 of the hook by an upward movement of the takeup is retarded slightly and expanded slightly, (see Fig. 5,) so that the eye-pointed needle at its next descent readily passes through the said loop, and in the further rotation of the hook to enable its point to enter the new loop to be formed at the eye of the needle, as in Fig. 6, the said finger guides the previously-formed loop and carries it out of the way of the point cl of the hook in its rotation. As soon as the point (1 of the hook has entered the new loop (see Fig. 6) the previously-formed loop in the further rotation of the hook is discharged off the point of the finger (the same pointover which it first passed) and the said previously-formed loop is left open and incomplete below the cloth, (see Fig. 7,) while the hook continues to rotate, expand the loop last entered by it, (see Figs. 7 and 1,) and cast it upon the finger, (see Fig. 3,) the previously-formed loop being drawn up by the take-up immediately after the last loop made is cast upon the finger and carried to its base, as in Fig. 4.

111 the present form of my invention the usual hook has a threaded hole in its outer wall (not herein shown) near its heel, and when it is desired to make a chain or loop stitch it is only necessary to apply my improved finger a by ascrew 5 or other suitable attaching means, removing the usual bobbin and bobbin-case from the machine, however, before commencing to stitch.

It will be obvious that I might permanently attach the finger to the heel of the hook and when it is desired to change from a lock-stitch to a chain or loop stitch machine substitute one hook for the other. I desire also to state that the parts instrumental in forming the chain or loop stitch are the point of the hook, it being long enough to enter the loop of needle-thread and being so shaped as to spread the loop preparatory to discharging it upon the point of the finger, and the finger attached to what may be called the heel ofthe hook, and there fore it is not essential to my invention, in so far as the production of the chain or loop stitch is concerned, as to what is the particular configuration of the hook or the casting to which the said point and the finger are connected,so long as the point of the hook takes the loop of needle-thread from the needle, and, moving continuously in one direction, or rotatiug, casts the said loop from its long point upon the point of the finger to the base thereof and so long as the finger in the further rotation of the hook in the same direction detains, spreads, guides, and casts off the said loop.

The particular stitch herein shown is that m ade by the VVillcox & Gibbs sewingmachine, it having a half-twist in the loop at the under side of the material.

In the drawings I have, to represent the feed, shown only part of the usual serrated dog which in practice is attached to the usual feed-bar.

It will be noticed in my invention that the finger referred to has deposited directly upon it the loop of needle-thread caught and de tained by the point of the hook and that said finger in the rotation of the hook not only holds but expands and then discharges the loop; but not until another loop has been formed by the needle.

I am aware that a rotating hook has been provided with two points and with wings or guards near them to act against and prevent a loop cast off from the point of one hook from being accidentally caught by the second point of the hook, the two hooks following one the other, as such a hook is shown in United States Patent No. 202,738, it being adapted to make two stitches during. each complete rotation. I am also aware that a rotating hook has been provided with a finger outside the point of the hook to prevent the loop of needle-thread from being thrown off on the front side of the needle, said finger keeping the loop of needle-thread out of the way of the point of the hook.

llaving described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s-

1. A shaft and a rotating hook, substantially as described, fixed thereto and having a point and a heel and having fixed to it at its heel end a loop-receiving finger having its point or free end located back of the regular point of the hook, the said finger receiving upon its point directly from the point of the hook the loop cast upon the finger, being free to pass substantially to the base thereof, the finger serving to detain and expand the loop so cast upon it until the needle has again descended and passed through the said loop and the regular point of the hook has entered a new loop of needle-thread, as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a sewing-machine, the following in strumentalities, viz: a needle-bar having an eye pointed needle, means to reciprocate the same, and arotatingshaft provided with ahook fast thereon and having a loop-taking point, as cl, to enter the loop of needle-thread and having a loop-receiving finger, as a, fixed to it at'its heel, said finger being secured thereto at a distance from the point of the hook in the direction of its rotation, the said fingerterminating at its free end at a distance be bind the point d of the hook and Within the circular path traveled by the beak of said hook, the said finger being adapted in the rotation of the hook to have cast about it from the point d of the hook the loop of needlethread, said finger by entering the loop serving to detain and spread the same while the needle in its next descent penetrates the loop WILBUR F. DIAL. Witnesses:

. GEo. W. GREGORY, EMMA J. BENNETT. 

